Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: square format

  • Please Step Forward

    Square format HDR landscape photograph of dock and bay at sunset
    Please Step Forward — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Happy Halloween, you guys.

    Whew—with the obligatory holiday recognition out of the way I can move on to tonight’s photograph. I’m not gonna lie, I hemmed and hawed about posting this one. I’m pretty meh on this shot, but I’m struggling to pinpoint why. Is it because the shot itself is just a going through the motions kind of place holder photograph? Or is it because tonight’s sky seduced me into thinking it was going to color up one hell of a sunset? It’s hard for me to say but either way, here’s a photo I wouldn’t exactly write home about—of course here I am blogging about it so does that even make sense?

    It’s funny how the great sunsets work. They ride a razor’s edge of boom or bust. There needs to be enough cloud action present to render a truly standout sky, but get a few too many clouds extending beyond the westward horizon and it’s cloud out central. That was tonight’s Halloween story: a sky full of grey and pastels nowhere to be found. But even with the miss, this sort of show up and hold your breath approach adds to the excitement and reward of landscape photography. Not too unlike fishing.

    Onward to next time.

  • Set a Screen

    Macro photograph of a hummingbird mid flight approaching a feeder
    Set a Screen — 100mm | f/3.2 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/320

    Last Saturday, before the Mullica River sunset, and long before the grilling and chilling, there was hummingbird watching going on at the Wurst Family kitchen sink. While Ben and Jen were dutifully putting in work to prepare a tasty summertime dinner, I was derailing any kind of kitchen progress as is my style. I’m good at getting in the way.

    You see right outside their window atop the kitchen sink hangs one of those nectar/sugar water hanging things that the New Gretna hummingbirds oh so love to suckle. This fly thru hanging restaurant was loaded down with about six hummingbirds bebopping in and out of the feeder and my field of view. Enthralled and in the way, I first started getting some footage with my cellphone. That worked well and on Ben’s recommendation I captured a pretty cool slow-motion video. It’s pretty damn impressive what you can capture with a handheld cellphone these days.

    Not content to call it a day with just an iPhone video, I went to the car and retrieved ye olde camera bag. With macro lens fixed I first tried to capture the hummingbirds from the outside. I initially set up shop at the corner of the house a few feet from the kitchen window and the feeder. Unfortunately my presence (stank?) was too much for our little bird friends. They wanted no part of my camera and me. Back to the kitchen! Back to being in the way!

    Once inside I took over the kitchen sink area. Again. Like magic the hummingbirds came back almost immediately. It seems the darkened screen on the window provided an illusion of safety for these birds. Despite being only a foot or two away from me, they had no problem flying in and out of my frame. While shooting through the medium of a window screen is suboptimal from a clarity standpoint, it was my only hope for capturing these elusive birds. Not only was the end result solid, I actually like the effect the screen has on the finished product itself; the subtlety of the screen grid works nicely with the bokeh in the shot.

  • Where the Wonderment Goes

    Square format HDR photograph of marsh grass and lake at blue hour
    Where the Wonderment Goes — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Sometimes you need your friends to stop by just to get yourself out the door. Despite promising late day sunset conditions, yesterday evening I found myself home from work and passed out on the couch. It was 7 p.m. With the startle of a doorbell I was up and weary, rubbing the sand out of my eyes to open the door. It wasn’t a long visit—maybe ten minutes—but it afforded me the opportunity to get my butt in gear to hop down to the Forge. In retrospect photo making was greater than nap taking—at least for one day.

    Still reeling from my post nap haze at my location some 10 minutes later than what would have been ideal, I didn’t have much time to scan the scene and properly scout my spot. Short on seconds I went to the closest open spot to my position. As you can see the grasses have grown quite unwieldily, but with that came an opportunity. A chance to set my camera right in the scene a, amidst the grasses, to bring a bit of mystery and whim to the photo. Perhaps cliché, but my mind went to right to Thoreau and Walden. A little hidden spot of paradise where the mind can unfurl and set out on a path of wonder.

    Thanks for stopping by, Jackie and Joe!

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  • Platformer

    Square format macro photograph of a Black-eyed Susan and a fly
    Platformer — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 200 | EXP 1/500

    It’s funny how the mind recognizes patterns and builds associations. You’ll see, smell, or touch a thing and, boom, the mind’s eye reflexively retrieves a memory. Anytime my macro lens and I get low to go side-on with daisies or coneflowers familiar MIDI sounds of my youth start humming, and my brain renders a primordial 8-bit Mario jumping from mushroom platform to mushroom platform. You know? These guys. So here I am transforming an innocuous Black-eyed Susan chilling in my front yard into the digital joy of my youth; smooth, clean flower petal edges become jagged lines of a pixelated past. Brains, man.

    How about you? Have any examples of when you see (smell or touch) a thing, and your mind works naturally to retrieve another?

  • Touchpoints

    Square format photograph of cross processed purple coneflowers with rich bokeh and shallow depth of field
    Touchpoints — 50mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/8000

    It was just this past Sunday I dropped such deep knowledge on the Twitters. Insert very strong sarcasm. Flippancy aside I really do like the shallow depth of field. Recognizing its existence was for me revelatory. As someone who spent the better part of 30 years willfully ignorant toward anything photographic, seeing exposures for the first time elevated composition to a new plane of understanding in my sometime left dominant brain. More so, it shed light into why, despite being rather skilled with any kind of fine art pencil work, I could never grasp the nuance and subtleties of painting—I’m especially looking at you, oils. I never understood depth of field. I never saw it. It’s as simple as that. I never understood you could just blur out elements, whether in the fore, mid or back grounds, with purpose to better move the eye across your subject and through its story.

    Art, man. It sounds so simple in retrospect. But I really do like the shallow depth of field.

  • Petey Piranha?

    Shallow depth of field macro photograph of a purple peony
    Petey Piranha? — 100mm | f/2.8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/640

    No, it’s not the goop spitting Petey Piranha of Bianco Hills’ Super Mario Sunshine fame, ready to chomp your day. But it is my front yard’s lone purple peony. After it went all last season without a single blossom I was most pleased to see a solo bloom make open for business this past Memorial Day Weekend. While I have several pink peonies scattered about my property, its purple shade is hands down my favorite.

    Now that it’s made an appearance, who’s ready to play some Mario?

  • Cross Process the Forge

    Square format HDR photograph cross processed for a moody look of Stafford Forge Wildlife Management Area.
    Cross Process the Forge — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    I hate to say but picture making just hasn’t been much fun lately; and while it’s hard to puzzle out whether it’s for lack of inspiration, poor mood, shoddy shooting conditions, a plateauing of skills or something else entirely. Either way it’s been a grind. Last night was just another blip on the here comes another busted sunset radar. Almost just hasn’t been almost enough for what feels like months now.

    So what’s to be done when natural light doesn’t live up to its end of the bargain? We play with sliders and presets in post processing—or at least that’s what I do. Some might say this works to flex the creative muscles. I would say it’s more like pressing a bunch of buttons hoping something interesting happens that will help bail out another ho-hum photograph.

    Ironically enough I actually like this picture. I just wish I had more control of the process and felt a little better doing it.

  • Public Health Hazard

    Public Health Hazard

    Ceramicist and potter, a hooded Jeff Ruemeli smokes the last of his cigarette as he stokes the soda kiln fires in this low key black and white portrait.
    Public Health Hazard — 50mm | f/1.4 | ISO 8000 | EXP 1/40

    Obligatory Disclaimer Alert: Kids, don’t be like this hobo hipster wizard. Smoking is bad for your health.

    This past Thursday longtime pal, ceramicist, glass blower and acoustic romanticist, Jeff Ruemeli, invited us over to the LBI Foundation of the Arts & Sciences to check out this here soda kiln firing he’s been waxing poetic about for weeks. The outdoor oven apparatus—roughly 5 feet by 5 feet by 7 feet (not including the chimney) of what I’m guessing is some kind of volcanic brick—was quite cool; and glowed something fierce in the dark of night as he and his colleague worked diligently to get the temperature up to a balmy 2,300°F.

    While I was unable to get a serviceable image of the natural gas kiln itself, I did manage to make this here modest portrait; highlighting the perils of gnarly beards and nasty cigarettes. Both insidious threats to civil society. Hide your children; hide your wife.

    Without question I have a fear of portraiture; personal space and comfort issues, damn you to hell. In the future, if I find some subjects I’m comfortable enough with, it’s an area of photography I’d like to explore. As such a speedlite and portrait lens may be in my future. Hooray for cash eating hobbies!

  • Just a Silver-Spotted Skipper snacking on some sedum

    A shallow depth of field macro photograph of a Silver-Spotted Skipper dining on sedum nectar.
    Just a Silver-Spotted Skipper snacking on some sedum — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/160

    Here in New Jersey we’re just about out of scenes like this for the season. As the Autumn veil descends life begins its annual retreat. Through the ebb and flow photography encourages the capture of singular moments that otherwise slip by riding the sands of time. These moments simultaneously give us both something to remember and something to look forward to. It’s wonderfully circular.

    This shot pushes the soft focus about as far as I like to go. Perhaps too far. Given a mulligan I’d try to bring the eye into sharper focus. As it stands it’s the wing edge that gets the very narrow field of sharpest focus. Which is interesting in its own right. Photography doesn’t always have to be perfect to be beneficial. Sometimes things are just good enough.